you did not see it coming?!?!?!?! for shame. also note that is not all gems. this only effects gems that naturally drop ie up to flawless square (seriously if you combined any gem that was not a flawless square you be doing it wrong).
they are still sketchy about the smith, probably wont matter anyway though.
I shudder to think how low the drop chance of 61+ items were before the released that updated spread sheet.
act2 is going to be a skipped act. unless they really nerf the hp of the monsters in it . right now double - 4 x the hp of act one monsters for 1% better level 61 chance 4% better chance of 62 and 2% better 63. seems hardly worth it too me. plus act 2 has notoriously hate-able mobs.
looks like act 1 and act 3 will still reign supreme